These pages document the histories of hidden Jewish children Manfred Wildmann and Sylvia Birnbaum Wildmann and their families in Germany, France, and Belgium during World War II. Sylvia translated the wartime letters exchanged by Manfred’s family members as they attempted to survive in France. Later, she published her own memoirs about her childhood in Germany, escape to Belgium, and life as a hidden child.
Dear Manfred,
Just now Mama brought some started letters. I am supposed to write to you first, however. This week the weather has been pretty bad here. Rain and storms. Because of it, we are not allowed to get up. Therefore I haven’t been to see Mama since Monday. (more…)
Enclosed 1 censored letter
Dear Manfred,
We got mail from you today. In the meantime you will have received our letter. Since Papa gets the letters first, there is a slight delay. We also got mail from Margot, Lorle and Opa today. Did I have reading material. I spent almost all of Saturday and Sunday with Mama as we had off to go to synagogue. We got an orange at the Suisse. (more…)
Dear Manfred,
I expected Mama today but it seems that she did not come even though women from the Camp are here. For instance, across (from me) the wife of the Spaniard who was lying to my left in Infirmary “I”, and a Jewish woman whom I did not know. Only the Spanish woman came in our ward. All of us are now in one section, with all the beds filled as the ward is being whitewashed. (more…)
My dear, good little Manfred,
We were very happy with your letter as always when we get mail from our darling. Would that your letters sound as satisfied as Lorle’s. If it would only work out for you to join Lorle. I want to see if there is an answer from Toulouse. (more…)
Dear Manfred,
I received your letter of the 21st yesterday. I enjoyed it very much. As far as I know, I wrote you about Albert, that he could not visit you on Whitsun because he travelled to his brother-in-law’s where his wife is at present. I believe that he will write you before he expects to come. On Sunday I had a big visit, Mama, Hugo and Sally. Mama had made a Schnitzknopf [1] for me and brought it along. All the things that she will have to cook when we are together again. (more…)
Letter from Margot enclosed
My dear, darling Lorle,
Your letter, dear Lorle, like all the mail that I receive from my dear children, brought me much joy. I am thankful to G’d that you kids are so well placed and that you, dear child, hit it especially well. If only Manfred’s mendings were in your mending bag. He would be so happy to be with you. You should only see the letter with pictures that he drew for Papa’s birthday. Wonderful, these ideas! (more…)
My dear, good, darling Honeybunch!
Your letter brought me much joy. I was sorry that you had to wait in vain again for Uncle Albert. He visited his family, even sent us a little package from there and one before his departure from Lyon and paid the local committee for another one, so that we received 3 little packages from him. (more…)
My dear, darling Frederle,
This time it took a little longer until I could write to you, my dear child. However, I don’t think that you worried about it because Papa had instructions to write to you at the beginning of the week. Hopefully he did it. I am writing to you and to Lorle at the end of the week so that Hugo can write at the bottom and post the letter which will get to you faster. (more…)
My dear, darling Frederle,
Although I did not receive any mail from you during the week, I want to start a letter for you as I have the opportunity to send it to Papa so that he can add to it because I know how happy you are if Papa writes to you as well. I always send your letters to him and hope to be allowed to visit him next Thursday. (more…)
Dear Manfred,
Enclosed is a letter from Lorle. You can forward same to Margot when convenient. I sent your letter and drawing to Lorle together with a few letters from Margot in which she describes her big outing and other things about her Home. (more…)
My dear, cute Manfred,
I heard that a woman whose name I don’t know from Bar. #37 is leaving for Grammont. So I quickly made a little something for the taste buds with grape sugar and nuts (could have used you to chop) instead of cake. It is little but from the bottom of my heart, enjoy it. It is frightfully hot today, it has never been so hot. It is frightful at night, almost nobody is able to sleep because of the many bedbugs, by contrast, the fleas in B were quite acceptable, big and tiny ones. (more…)
My dear, darling little Fred,
Today I received your letter. Letters from Lorle and Margot came with the same mail. Lorle has renewed her efforts on your behalf, hopefully with success. She’ll certainly write you herself. That would be the nicest. Margot accepted a position in a household. (more…)
Dear Frederle,
From now on, you won’t receive as much mail from us because Mama and I have agreed that she will write to you one week and I the next. (more…)
My dear, good and darling little Fred
Why didn’t I get any mail from you for a whole week? Do I worry! Each day I wait in vain for mail from you. Perhaps you wrote Papa and he did not have the opportunity to forward it to me on Thursday. It is sad indeed that we are so separated and that a letter is the only thing to cheer one up. (more…)
Dear Little Fred!
On Sunday when I was in Rivesaltes, Mama had not gotten any mail from you. Hopefully something came in the meantime. I am writing today already although I plan to take this letter along to Rivesaltes. What are you up to? Do you still work in the fields? I am in Barcarès again as our work in the castle was finished. Here I am a barber. (more…)
Ilot J. bar. #17
My dear, sweet Frederle!
Enclosed 2 stamps @ 1.50 frs.
Yesterday I finally received the long awaited letter, I already worried about you. As I see not quite unnecessarily. The main thing is that you are up and about again and that it wasn’t bad. Perhaps you were too long in the heat? (more…)
My dear Frederle,
It is Friday and more than usual do my thoughts dwell with you my dear children. I cannot allow myself to think of the beautiful Friday evenings as my heart aches then. And yet I am happy that I could offer you my dear children these beautiful evenings, that I succeeded with Papa’s help to give you these memories for the rest of your lives. (more…)
My dear sister Lorle,
Today, since I don’t have to write to anybody, I am writing you a letter in French. I hope that you will be able to read everything despite my many mistakes. I can’t yet write well because we haven’t had school in a long time. Now we have classes again but only one hour and three quarters everyday. (more…)
My dear little Fred,
Yesterday Saturday afternoon I received your letter which made me very happy as I had already been waiting all week for news from you. I already informed you that I received a letter from Mama from en route. (more…)
My dear, good Lorle,
A difficult, unspeakable difficult week lies behind me. Days full of excitement and desperation. Perhaps you have heard there of the events that happened here. Now, that I can almost say: it “was”, only now can I write to you, before that I couldn’t lift a pen.
For already 10 days, registrations and lists are made. Well, one is used to that, and yet one keeps wondering what for. This time the grapevine had it that we will be shipped off, in fact to Poland. (more…)